Human rights campaigners are to appeal yesterday’s High Court ruling that determined that the Metropolitan Police’s use of unproven Live Facial Recognition cameras did not breach people’s human rights, judges saying the force’s policy gave an “adequate indication of the circumstances in which LFR will be used”.
Big Brother’s watching you: Croydon is the first location in Britain to have Live Facial Recognition cameras installed permanently
Big Brother Watch maintains that the cameras’ use is unlawful and liable to be discriminatory against members of minority ethnic groups.
“No one should be treated like a criminal due to a computer error,” according to Shaun Thompson, who brought the case with Big Brother Watch, after he had been wrongfully arrested as a result of Live Facial Recognition cameras.
Live Facial Recognition cameras were first trialled on the North End shopping area in Croydon town centre in December 2023. LFR cameras have since been installed at the location permanently, the first such full-time deployment in Britain.
The cameras are usually mounted in busy high streets and their computer programming is designed to identify people on police watchlists. The Met says that the cameras cannot be used unless there are officers in attendance in real time.
Court case: Shaun Thompson, who was wrongly stopped as a result of LFR use, and Big Brother Watch’s Silkie Carlo
The Met Police welcomed yesterday’s ruling, and in doing so revealed that the technology has been broadly improved in the past year to reduce false IDs – which somewhat suggests that the technology as used in Croydon in 2023 through to 2025 was less than perfect, as the Met and the then Tory government minister, Chris Philp, claimed at the time.
Thousands of face images are recorded at every LFR deployment for every arrest made. The Met maintains that all images of people who are not on its watchlist are automatically discarded within seconds of being checked by their computer.
The concerns of human rights groups such as Big Brother Watch is over the lack of accountability and the margins of error within such an intrusive system that initially assumes that anyone might be a police suspect.
Thompson, an anti-knife crime campaigner, was misidentified by the technology. He brought the case alongside Silkie Carlo from Big Brother Watch.
Their lawyer told the High Court that LFR would make it “impossible” for Londoners to travel without their biometric data being taken.
But judges said the argument that the technology risked discriminating against people due to their race had not been convincing.
Big turnover: 11 arrests in a typical LFR day in Croydon – when thousands of people are scanned
“We are not able to accept, on the thin submissions advanced before us, that concerns about discrimination infect the legality of the policy,” said Lord Justice Holgate and Mrs Justice Farbey.
There is no legislation to provide standards within which police forces across the country can use LFR fairly and lawfully.
The Met’s lawyer told the court at least 801 arrests had been made last year “specifically as a result of LFR”, and the privacy risk was “only minimal”. The Met claims that there have been only a dozen misidentifications out of 3million people scanned by their RoboCop cameras. No one had been wrongly arrested as a result of LFR, the Met says.
Sir Mark Rowley, the Met commissioner, welcomed the decision and said the tech “helps us catch more criminals quickly and precisely, saves officer time, and ultimately saves money”.
Sarah Jones, the MP for Croydon West, whose constituency includes the North End LFR cameras, is the authoritarian Labour government’s policing minister. She welcomed the judgement.
“There can be no true liberty when people live in fear of crime in their communities,” Jones said.
Policing minister: Labour’s Sarah Jones
“Live facial recognition only locates specifically wanted people – law-abiding citizens have nothing to fear,” Jones claimed.
“This technology puts dangerous rapists and murderers behind bars – and I question any group who call that uncivil.
“We are rolling out facial recognition across the country with record investment to keep communities safe.”
Thompson, who was wrongly detained as a result of LFR use, takes a different view. “I was compliant with the police, but my bank cards and passport weren’t enough to convince the police the facial recognition tech was wrong.
“It’s like stop and search on steroids.”
The equipment and systems have been subjected to independent testing by the National Physical Laboratory, which the Met says found that the system is accurate and balanced with regard to ethnicity and gender.
According to the Met’s own figures, since the start of 2024, more than 2,100 arrests have been made across London using LFR. Yet of those, only 1,400 individuals – 66% – have been charged or cautioned.
“We are committed to providing clear reassurance that rigorous checks, oversight and governance are embedded at every stage to safeguard people’s rights and privacy,” a Scotland Yard spokesperson said.
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ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2026, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for an EIGHTH time in nine years, in Private Eye magazine’s annual round-up of civic cock-ups
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Sarah Jones is a member of a governing party that appointed Peter Mandelson as Ambassador to the USA, despite all the evidence indicating that he wasn’t remotely suitable, and threw a civil servant under the bus for it. They are also criminalising peaceful protest about genocide in Palestine while allowing IDF war criminals to live freely in the UK. Not only that, they want to curtail trial by jury. Locally we have the very serious allegations not only about the Croydon East selection process but the software behind it.
If Sarah Jones wants to clear up crime, she should start with Labour. There can be no true liberty when people live with criminality in their political institutions
The problem with that sentiment is that some folks break the law but then claim the law was unjust so they are not really criminals
It a good idea to catch criminals and keep the areas safe.
It’s just a cheaper alternative to having police actually patrolling areas, but without any basis or protections in law.